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Thread: 1993 Radgreen 7.62 x 51 in a 308 bolt gun?

  1. #1
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    1993 Radgreen 7.62 x 51 in a 308 bolt gun?

    I have a LOT of 1993 RadGreen NATO surplus 7.62 x 51 that I have shot for years in M1A, Saiga, PTR 91, various AR's with no issue. Its been about a 2 -3 MOA round but very reliable. Today I shot some in a bolt gun but had several primer strikes where nothing happened. I would load again and sometimes 2 or 3 times later it fired. The ammo has always been stored in doors in climate controlled (at least for the last 15 years or so that I've had it). Anyway is there something unique about a bolt gun that would make 7.62 x 51 unreliable or could the age of this ammo be causing it to not fire sometimes now (maybe 20% of the rounds had this issue today). The gun has been 100% previously and I switched to FGMM 308 after the issue today and the FGMM was fine. Thoughts?

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    Probably a harder primer for military actions. I am sure it still works fine in your other guns.

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    The NATO ammo has harder primers. Additionally, bolt-action rifles have less force than something hammer-fired rifles. Many times bolt-actions have less firing pin protrusion.


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    Another vote for harder/thicker primer cups, but it's possible that debris is in the firing pin area too. We had that happen with a rem 700 .223 where super hot ammo blew a chunk into the firing pin hole.
    "What would a $2,000 Geissele Super Duty do that a $500 PSA door buster on Black Friday couldn't do?" - Stopsign32v

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    I remember that the British used different cartridge headspace and rifle headspace standards for their military 7.62 rifles. If you have a cartridge headspace comparator measure the shoulder location on the Radgreen and American .308 and LC 7.62 brass and see how close they are.

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    You might see if Wolff has a stronger striker spring. In addition to the RG being harder, Federal primers typically have a reputation for being softer. I can recall reading way back about revolvers with lightened springs working only with Federal primers.

    In the early 90's, SOG and maybe other distributors were selling what they called Hirtenberger .308 Winchester soft point hunting ammunition and had a label similar to that on the box and I bought a few boxes before I really knew what I was looking at. Shot some out of a Savage 110 without problems. Around 10 years later I bought some Radway and kept thinking it looked familiar so I dug around and found the "Hirtenberger" and noticed the RG with circle cross headstamps(plus ground off jackets at the tips) and decided to peel off that labeling which exposed the Radway and L2A2 markings printed on the cardboard underneath.
    Last edited by jsbhike; 11-20-20 at 20:08.

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    Another thing, simply cleaning the firing pin could help. Be sure it’s free of lubrication.


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    A lot of .30 caliber semi-automatic rifles have floating firing pins. I suspect Radway Green ammunition has hard primers to prevent slam fires.
    Train 2 Win

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    Quote Originally Posted by Devildawg2531 View Post
    I have a LOT of 1993 RadGreen NATO surplus 7.62 x 51... Thoughts?
    I have a bunch of late 1980s RG, and it goes bang every time in my Savage FCP-SR.

    I regularly shoot various milsurp 7.62NATO in my Savage, to foul/warm the barrel, sight in, or let new shooters try it, and I've never had a round fail to fire.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Devildawg2531 View Post
    I have a LOT of 1993 RadGreen NATO surplus 7.62 x 51 that I have shot for years in M1A, Saiga, PTR 91, various AR's with no issue. Its been about a 2 -3 MOA round but very reliable. Today I shot some in a bolt gun but had several primer strikes where nothing happened. I would load again and sometimes 2 or 3 times later it fired. The ammo has always been stored in doors in climate controlled (at least for the last 15 years or so that I've had it). Anyway is there something unique about a bolt gun that would make 7.62 x 51 unreliable or could the age of this ammo be causing it to not fire sometimes now (maybe 20% of the rounds had this issue today). The gun has been 100% previously and I switched to FGMM 308 after the issue today and the FGMM was fine. Thoughts?
    Step one, disassemble the bolt and clean it, then measure firing pin protrusion.

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